Completely Spoiled

Yesterday was my birthday. And, seeing as how I'm no longer 8 years old, I didn't really think the day would be all that spectacular. I was planning on spending the day working, going out for dinner, then having a piece of cake at my mom's house. A good day, but not spectacular. Well, the day completely exceeded all of my expectations. It started with a very early phone call from my mom, wishing me a happy birthday. Then she called back 5 minutes later, telling me to hurry and turn on my radio so I could hear the Birthday Round-up. Oh, geez....
Once I got to school, everyone seemed to know it was my birthday. All day, co-workers and students were very enthusiastically wishing a happy birthday (my 2nd period class even burst into song!). My two good friend at work got me a cake, complete with candles, that we dug into at lunch, and they even ordered me some Harry Potter action figures for my desk. During the last class of the day, an office aide walked into my room with a bunch of balloons and roses and told me that a man with a long white beard had just dropped them off for me. The card was signed Professor Dumbledore. I eventually got my mom to confess that it had been her.
Later, we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant (this is the one day of year that James can't veto me, so I went big!). Dinner was lovely and afterward, everyone met at my mom's for cake. I got more presents, more good food, and spent most of the evening laughing so hard with my sisters that I couldn't breathe.
It was such a lovely, lovely day. It really made me take a step back and realize how many truly wonderful people I have in my life, and how lucky I am. I felt intensely loved and very blessed. I'm not sure I deserve any of it, but I am so, so grateful for people that make me feel so special.

Summer Fun

Although summer has been VERY short this year, we have tried our best to squeeze in as much fun as possible. There have been camping trips (well, one anyway), visits to the park and the pool, family get-togethers, and trips to Salt Lake. Here are a few pictures:

For some reason, we keep thinking its a good idea to eat ice cream cones in the car. What are we thinking?!



The highlight of the summer for Little Man (and possibly his life), was our visit the the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point.

My new favorite photo:
Can't you just hear him telling us all about the dinosaur he's looking at?


Posing with the brachiosaurus.

A Boy's Prayer

Warning: This story might be offensive and cause intense laughter. Proceed with caution.

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago, but every time I tell this story, I end up with tears rolling down my face because I'm laughing so hard. And I keep thinking... I need to blog this!

We were saying the prayer at bedtime, and Little Man was repeating the words that James was saying. Here's what was said:

James: Please bless LM to grow big and strong.

LM: Please bless LM to grow big and strong in his wiener.

And now you know the deepest desire of Little Man's soul, and I would venture to guess, the soul of every male on the planet.

Trying to Be Grateful

Some reasons why I am (or should be, anyway) grateful today:

• Even though my car is probably totaled, nobody was injured in the accident I caused today.
• We finally got our deposit back from the old apartment. (But, who charges $165 for carpet cleaning?!? Ridiculous...)
• I got to spend some quality time with Little Man watching Toy Story 3.
• Little Man only had one accident today (and it happened at home), even though we had a couple of long car rides and a long movie we sat through. Yea!
• We were able to visit family today and enjoy a delicious barbecue.
• Tomorrow is Sunday, and I have no plans!

And, just because it has been so very long since I posted anything, here are a few pictures of what's been going on around here.

On the first official day of summer, Little Man fell at the park and broke his nose. He was very swollen and colorful for several weeks and ended up needing to have surgery to set it. He's all better now, and although I don't think his nose looks quite the same, at least it's not crooked.


We've been spending lots of time with the cousins now that summer's here. Here's Little Man and Cousin E, bathing together. This picture will come in handy someday, I'm sure. Mwahaha...


Little Man's favorite activity these days is playing in the water. He loves to play in the canal in front of the house, get sprayed with the hose, and run through the "sprinkles." Here he is with Daddy, running/being dragged through the sprinklers.

Showing Off

Here's a video of Little Man "reading" one of our favorite books at bedtime last night. Enjoy!

Baby Animals and Fighting Dinosaurs

Oh, Spring Break? Where have you gone? This has been the fastest week of my whole life, I think. I spent most of the week scrubbing walls and cleaning out cupboards; after being stuck inside all winter, the house was feeling really yucky. I think having a toddler has something to do with it, because I've never felt the urge to Spring Clean before this year. I just really wish that the whole house could be clean all at the same time. I think I could make a full-time job out of chasing my boy and cleaning the house.

I did manage to get out to do a few fun things this week. On Thursday, my sister and I took our kids to the annual "Baby Animal Days" at the American West Heritage Center. It was much busier than I had anticipated, but we all had a lot of fun petting the animals and eating the greasy food, even if we did have to wait in line for a little while. The only pictures that I managed to get before my camera died were of Little Man petting the baby goats. I really wish I'd had a picture of him holding a chick all by himself. He almost squished the little thing to death, but he was thrilled.

This morning I was feeling like I really needed to DO something, since it's the last real day of Spring Break. At the last minute, I decided that Little Man and I were going to go to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. We drove down, had lunch at Burger King, then proceeded to the Park. Little Man was in heaven! If you've never been there, it's a little museum, plus a huge park full of life-size statues of dinosaurs. They also have a dinosaur-themed playground, which Little Man couldn't have cared less about. He just wanted to keep walking around and looking at the dinosaurs. For the rest of the day, he kept asking when we can go back to see the "fighting dinosaurs." I think we'll be spending a lot of time there this summer.



And one last picture. Tonight, while getting ready for bed, Little Man said, "I do it all by myself." Here's the result:

Did somebody say Easter candy?

I realized today that I made a significant parenting mistake. While we were watching Conference, anytime "Easter" was mentioned, Little Man's ears perked up and he would say, "Candy? Easter candy?" We had a talked about why we celebrate Easter, but I know all he'll really remember is eggs and candy. Any tips on how to teach a little one about resurrection?

We did have a fun Easter, though. The Easter Bunny visited us in the night and left eggs to find and a few small presents in Little Man's bucket. We had a leisurely day watching Conference then went to my sister's for dinner, another egg hunt, and, of course, more candy. Seriously, we have more candy in our house than we did at Halloween! And since Little Man is a candy fiend, there have been many temper tantrums at our house today.

Little Man has had a few rough potty day in a row. Tonight, at my sister's, he was playing by himself in his cousin's room. I went to check on him, and walk in to see him with his pants pulled down. Upon closer inspection, I saw that he had pooped his pants. When I asked him what he was doing with his pants down, he pointed to the doll house toilet he was trying to straddle, and said, "I go potty, Mom." Close, honey. How can I even be mad?